Mike Halloran (Baird) asked what IDEX is seeing on a forward basis across short-cycle and advantaged markets, and how backlog build and visibility compare to history.
Eric Ashleman said Q2 was atypical in that longer-lead OEM-driven orders (water, mining, Viking) led the FMT inflection first, with classic short-cycle distribution demand rotating up later in Q2 and into July; in HST, momentum built over ~18 months and inflected in early 2026, with a big data-center pneumatics order positioned for 2027 giving roughly twice the forward volume of a year ago and supporting the modest CapEx step-up.
Deane Dray (RBC, on his final IDEX call before retirement) asked about the profile of short-cycle demand and whether HST is seeing any blanket orders in life sciences.
Ashleman said the classic up-and-down-the-street small-order flow is strengthening (a proxy for the industrial economy), though a large BAND-IT aerospace/defense blanket order dominated; in HST there were no life-science blanket orders but core fluidics/analytical instruments and optical filters improved to mid-single-digit rates with some backlog build.
Bryan Blair (Oppenheimer) asked about FMT order progression and back-half growth, and what differentiates the Intelligent Water platform.
Ashleman said the faster-converting fragmented order pattern inflected at quarter-end and continued into July; the water platform's two pieces (municipal wastewater analytics/inspection via Envirosight, and a differentiated water-saving high-purity semiconductor water franchise) are both firing now, versus only municipal a year or two ago, with no signs of downward inflection.
Joe Giordano (TD Cowen) asked whether a high-single- to low-double-digit HST revenue placeholder for 2027 is reasonable and how IDEX separates its strategy from simply riding hot end markets.
Ashleman cautioned that the visible fast-growing chunk is a relatively narrow corridor while most of IDEX remains rapid-replenishment, though arrows point positive; he credited genuine, often competitor-less engineered solutions (especially in space & defense) developed from acquired assets rather than riding a wave.
Rob Wertheimer (Melius) asked how much of the order strength is attributable to IDEX's innovation/new-market strategy and what drove the uptick in mining.
Ashleman attributed mining strength to ABEL Pumps, which under 80/20 singularly chased global critical-minerals mining and has grown every year; on the strategy question, he said more than the majority of the three advantaged-market applications (now a third of HST) are genuinely new solutions born from combining acquired capabilities, powered by rapid iteration in material science.
Nathan Jones (Stifel) asked what the increased CapEx supports and about the medium-term capital-allocation and M&A cadence.
Ashleman said the CapEx (mostly HST) is longer-term, positioning for higher 2027-2028 output rather than breaking current bottlenecks, and remains asset-light; on capital allocation, the proprietary M&A pipeline intensity is high around growth-platform attachment points, with Sean Gillen adding that ~$75M/quarter buybacks are the base case, flexing with the deal pipeline.
Vlad Bystricky (Citi) asked how mature the growth efforts are, how 80/20 will keep supporting growth, and about the North American fire market in FSDP.
Ashleman said they are still early, with each win opening adjacent doors and the same component technology moving laterally across semiconductor, space & defense, and data center; on fire, it is a continuation of a multiyear mobile-fire-platform backlog with an additive, differentiated automation-gear kicker embedded in that backlog.
Andrew Buscaglia (BNP Paribas) asked about the ceiling for FMT margins as volume returns and about geographic trends.
Gillen said that once FMT volume normalizes, incremental flow-through would run close to 40% given the businesses' high-30s/40s profitability; Ashleman said North America is strongest, Europe steady, India growing faster than China, with India increasingly a jump-off point for globalizing HST growth.
Dan DiCicco (BMO) asked where else IDEX can leverage existing technologies across higher-growth areas beyond space & defense.
Ashleman pointed to broad runway within data center, semiconductor (wafer production/inspection), and space & defense (low-earth-orbit communications, Mott propulsion/payload filtration, optics), plus continued long-run support for life sciences and the analytically similar water platform in FMT.
Brett Linzey (Mizuho) asked about HST incremental margins as the advantaged-market mix shifts, and the allocation and duration of the IEEPA rebates.
Gillen said HST flow-through, recently low-to-mid-30s, was high-30s ex-IEEPA this quarter and should stay there as higher-gross-margin acquired businesses drive the mix; the tariff refunds and associated customer rebates should be essentially confined to Q2, with only marginal deviation possible in later quarters.